The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-06-18

like it. They sustainl it. They de-
mand it. For this reason, and for this
alone, it is supplied to them. Editors
and newspaper writers do not furnish
this sort of thing of their own choice.
Many of them despise it and furnish
it under strong protest. But they must
make papers which will sell-which the
people will approve. So the public
gets what it delights in. Let but few
symptoms of disapproval appear-let
the purveyors of news but once begin
to suspect that this rampant aunkey-
ism was getting unpopular-that their
readers did not enjoy, but despised it
and 10 the change which would soon
come. No class of people would be
better pleased with the change than
the newspaper people, 1 believe, and
yet they are to-day doing more to culti-
vate this spirit Of snobbery in America
than all other agencies combined. If
the people do not like it, let the people
manifest their displeasure. When they
are told the next time how Mrs. Cleve-
land goes to bed with turban on her
head, with bird of paradise on it,
and court-train to her night-gown,"
let them give the dispenser Of the in
formation to understand that they have
no interest in the details of that affair,
and perhaps they will be spared in
the morning the account of how she got
up and what was the color and style
of her haberdashery and her hosiery.
But as long as they evince an interest
in these details they may be sure they
will be forthcoming. Such is human
nature in this part of the nineteenth
century-such it ever has been and
such it ever will be--world without end,
1 opine.
The intense vulgarity of this modern
curiosity about the personal affairs Of
other people can hardly be overstated.
Inquisitiveness is one Of the surest
signs of vulgar mind, and that the
public has so great share of this dis
gusting vice, proves more surely its es-
sential vulgarity than it could be de-
monstrated in any other manner. And
the panderers to this curiosity, are they
not vulgar also y Yes, even though
they may be Of the bluest royal blood,
L say, no more vulgar act has been
done this century, than the publication
of the "Letters of the Princess Alice, Of
England" by the Queen herself. Pri-
vate letters of the most sacred charac-
ter, and containing not one line which
would interest the outside world-ex-
cept as they pandered to this detesta-
BILE modern curiosity of ours-about the
private lives of royal persons, are here
given to the world without even an
apology for the violation of sacred
privacy. "Ouida" very truthfully says
Zone cannot but feel pity for the poor
dead princess, who would surely have
writhed under such indignity, when
one sees in the crudeness and cruelty of
print, her homely descriptions of suck
ling her children, and struggling with
narrow purse, descriptions so plainly
intended for no eyes but those of the
persons to whom they were addressed.
Better, how much better have buried
with her those humble letters, in which
the soul is seen naked as in its prayer
closet, and no more fit to be dragged
out into the garish light of publicity
than the bodily nakedness of chaste
woman is fit to be pilloried in the mar
ket place." She truly adds that it
seems like the public desecration Of
grave.
Did we not all feel this when the pri-
vate letters of Mrs. Carlyle were given
to the world, with all their homely de-
tails, and betraying as they did the sad
domestic experiences which she had
covered up from all the world during
her life Such violation of the priva-
cies and sanctities of life, is crime of
the same nature as body-snatching, and
cannot be too speedily frowned down
by a curious world. The letters of
public men and women are often pub
lished-not only with their consent, but
by their desire, and of course this is
quite another matter. The letters of
literary men are often written with
some expectation that they will appear
in their biographies, and such letters
legitimately belong to the public; but
the private letters of private persons
are sacred, and should be so held by
those who receive them.
There are some curious things in the
relations of the royal family of Eng
land, to the great unwashed public.
When Prince Albert was alive, he held
himself so far above having any out
ward communication with the people
themselves, that when he went out to
shoot he had keeper to load his guns,
as a matter-Of-cOurse, and then they
had to be handed to the nobleman who
was his equerry, who handed them to
the prince, and under no circumstances
could he receive them directly from the
keeper. Thackeray also relates how he
one night in the city of Cairo, at an inn,